Formation | 1985 |
---|---|
Founder | Sister Stanislaus Kennedy |
Type | Charitable organisation |
Registration no. | CHY7220 |
Legal status | Non-profit |
Focus | Housing and homelessness |
Location | |
Region served | Ireland |
Website | Official Site |
Focus Ireland is a nonprofit organisation based in Dublin, Ireland that provides services for people who are homeless and people at risk of homelessness in Ireland. It was founded by Sister Stanislaus Kennedy in 1985, [1] [2] and is one of the largest housing and homelessness organisations in Ireland. [3] It provides services in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Kilkenny, Sligo, Kildare, Carlow, Tipperary, Wexford and Waterford.
The charity's stated mission is "to advance the right of people-out-of-home to live in a place they call home through quality services, research, and advocacy". In 2017 it spent €26.3 million to that end. [4] Focus Ireland receives approximately half of its budget each year through state funding and raises the other 50% through donations from the public, events and corporate support.[ citation needed ]
According to its 2018 annual report, Focus Ireland helped over 15,000 people in 2018 who were homeless or at risk of losing their home. [2] According to the same report, the charity's housing association arm had provided over 1,100 homes to individuals and families in Ireland. [2]
As of May 2020, there were nearly 10,000 people homeless, including over 3,000 children, and Focus Ireland called for a review of the supports offered by the state. [5] The charity also called for an urgent increase in the provision of social and affordable rental housing, and for the state to move away from its reliance on providing housing in the private rented market.[ citation needed ]
Focus Ireland's work includes lobbying for changes in public policy and provision for those experiencing homelessness. [6] As of the 21st century, Focus Ireland has started to focus on preventing homelessness and on a 'Housing Led' approach by providing a secure home first. [7] [8]
Under Focus Ireland's 2017 - 2020 Strategy Plan, the organisation's stated aims focus on preventing homelessness and supporting people who are homeless to move into secure accommodation. [6]
Belvedere College S.J. is a voluntary secondary school for boys in Dublin, Ireland. The school has numerous notable alumni in the arts, politics, sports, science, and business. Alumni and teachers at Belvedere played major roles in modern Irish literature, the standardisation of the Irish language, as well as the Irish independence movement – both the 1916 Rising and the Irish War of Independence. The school's notable alumni and former faculty include two Taoisigh, one Ceann Comhairle, several cabinet ministers, one Blessed, one Cardinal, one Archbishop, one signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, two Supreme Court Justices, one Olympic medallist, thirty Irish international rugby players and numerous notable figures in the world of the arts, academia and business. Belvedere College forms the setting for part of James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Homelessness in Australia is a social issue concerning the number of people in Australia that are considered to be homeless. There are no internationally agreed upon definitions of homelessness, making it difficult to compare levels of homelessness across countries. A majority of people experiencing homelessness long-term in Australia are found in the large cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. It is estimated that on any given night approximately 116,000 people will be homeless and many more are living in insecure housing, "one step away from being homeless". A person who does not obtain any shelter is often described as sleeping 'rough'.
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Crisis accommodation is housing provided to people experiencing temporary or ongoing conditions of mental or physical health challenges. It aims to remove them from an otherwise harmful environment and allowing them to improve their situations from a safe and stable environment. Situations that may be alleviated through crisis accommodation include but are not limited to homelessness, domestic violence, elder abuse, and child abuse. Crisis accommodation is typically provided through government organisations, not-for-profit organisations and charities. Crisis accommodation is also known as housing subsidies in other words. Crisis accommodation is provided everywhere around the world across various countries. There are other factors such as availability of the services and reasons like poverty and accumulation of debt that affect homelessness which needs to be taken into account in order to solve it as more people tend to look for urgent support when they are facing this crisis.
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The Rehab Group is an international not-for-profit organisation providing health and social care, training and education, rehabilitation, employment and commercial services. Operating primarily in Ireland and the United Kingdom, it was originally established in 1949 as the Rehabilitation Institute, and provided training services to people with tuberculosis. In 2014 and 2015, a number of controversies involving the Rehab Group resulted in the resignation of the organisation's then CEO, a reduction in donations to several charities, and changes to the regulation of charities in Ireland.
Crosscare is a social care services provider in Dublin, with a Catholic ethos, which was established by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin in the 1940s. Also known as "St. Laurence O'Toole Catholic Social Care CLG" and "Crosscare, The Catholic Social Service Conference", it is registered as a charity with the Charities Regulator in Ireland.
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In recent years in Ireland we have started to lean more towards working to prevent homelessness and recently to take a 'Housing Led' approach, providing a secure home first